It is definitely time for an update! Thanks for the picture, Hugh!
I took my red Chevy Volt home on Monday late in the day. I had a meeting in Ann Arbor so I got right on the expressway and drove 40 miles. The battery was fully charged when I left Howell and used up when I got on M-14 with just 3 miles to go. The gas tank was also full of premium gas (necessary for the Volt).
It drives like a dream! Great pick-up and great torque. It is low to the road. The interior feels like an expensive car. Remember, my perspective is coming from an 04 Vibe. The Vibe is a GREAT car (highly recommend them), but this is definitely a step up for me. I have the free XM for a while (love the Lithium station and the all Frank Sinatra station) which is a pleasant change.
There is a lot of computer action inside. There is an active screen behind the wheel and a touch screen in the middle of the dash. The touch screen gives you detail on your charge and energy usage as well as navigation/music/etc. There are 6 sets of 5 favorite settings so you can program 30 favorite stations. Just a bit of overkill there…
I messed up the charge on Monday night. You can program it to charge when rates are lowest, if your utility provides, and the Volt was set to start charging after midnight. I don’t have a high-speed charging station yet (which takes approximately 4 hours to fill the battery) so I just plugged it into our 110 in our garage using the cord from GM. The 110 takes approximately 8 hours to charge the battery fully. Since it was programed to start after midnight and I left the house around 8:30, the battery wasn’t full.
I drove to Lansing from Howell and used up the battery after Williamston (so maybe 25 miles on a not complete charge). Of course, with the Volt you switch over to gas. I was happy to have it on Tuesday!
I did fully charge it last night. I won’t be driving it for a couple of days, but I’ll report in when I have more consistent experiences.
I’m still debating the charging station. I’ll definitely do the high-speed, especially since DTE has such a great program in my area, but we are debating moving so we may wait until the new garage.
